stake out (jake peralta)

THREE

it had been three weeks since you and jake had hugged in the evidence locker and neither of you had spoken about it, partly due to the fact that jake wasn't sure if bringing up bradley was a good idea and partly because you both didn't quite understand what exactly felt different when you had hugged as opposed to the several other times you had. 

you were currently walking into the hall that gina had booked for her and boyle's parents for their wedding. you scanned the room and walked over to rosa, amy, gina and charles. you smiled as you approached them and greeted them all.

'where's terry, jake and holt?' you questioned once you had realised the three were missing. amy playfully rolled her eyes and motioned towards jake, who was standing with another girl you had never seen before. he was smiling at her and you could tell she was laughing at something he had said before he held his arm out and he linked his with hers, leading her to the seating for the wedding. he saw you and the other detectives standing and watching him and he discreetly gave a small thumbs up.

you felt a small pang of jealousy within you seeing jake hand in hand with another girl, but you shrugged it off because you had only recently ended things with bradley and even though you thought of the hug as something more, it was clear jake didn't, and you were okay with that. you had never let your negative emotions get the best of you and you immediately ignored the ugly emotion you were feeling and decided to focus on the friends around you. 

'i'm so proud of jake, he finally made it with jenny!' boyle essentially squealed with excitement and you smile faintly at him, knowing jake's best friend was over the moon that he was able to finally get the girl he had been thinking about for basically his whole life. 

***

the ceremony was over and you were currently standing in the room where the reception was held, you looked around for any of your friends but were unsuccessful in finding them, until you spotted a lonesome jake. you approached him as he stood lifeless as if he was in shock, keeping his gaze focus in front of him. you looked at what he was staring at and realised it was the girl he had originally walked in to the wedding with.

'i can't believe it. i got eddie fung'd again.' he barely said above a whisper. you look at him and furrowed your brows in confusion.

'are you talking about eddie fung, that guy from your high school?' you asked and he nodded back without looking at you.

you rolled your eyes at the ridiculousness of your best friend as he watched jenny dance with another guy. you stood in front of him, blocking his view of the couple and looking him in the eyes.

'i think its about time you got over this crap jakey. look, i know i'm no jenny, but if you want to dance then i'm happy to. you can't keep moping around like this.' you spoke to him yet he never took his eyes off jenny until you were done. he slightly nodded and half smiled at you, then grabbed your waist as you put your arms on his shoulders. 

the two of you swayed slowly back and forth to the music but you knew jake wasn't paying attention. his eyes managed to wonder off back to jenny again and they remained there. you were starting to get annoyed, you were trying your best to help your friend but everything you did seemed to fail and it was so frustrating. you sighed and dropped your arms from around jake's shoulders and neck and walked off, leaving jake who barely even seemed to notice your missing presence. 

you made your way through the many people on the floor and tried to find someone you knew. after a few minutes you spotted charles talking to gina and terry and made your way over. as you approached you started to hear their conversation, or more the conversation that charles was having with himself about food while the other two barely payed attention.